Craig Breslow channels his inner Chaim Bloom with damning response to Red Sox offseason

It wasn’t quite “we’re going to do this, it’s going to be awesome,” but new Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow’s response to questions about Boston’s underwhelming offseason struck a familiar chord that should have fans rightly concerned…

CB is starting to sound like Chaim Bloom.

In a one-on-one with the Boston Globe, Bloom… I mean, Breslow… opened up on the team’s direction in his first offseason at the helm. And instead of taking the Chris Sale “we suck, we know it, we’ve got to be better” route, he defaulted into politically correct GM mode.

“As I’ve gotten know this organization better through conversations I’ve had with ownership, they are absolutely still supportive of assembling a World Series team as quickly as we possibly can,” Breslow said.

There are two ways to look at Breslow’s opening salvo in this interview, but they both start with the same question: What exactly has Breslow seen to give him the confidence that Red Sox ownership is ready to invest in a World Series winner ASAP?

In Breslow’s tenure, the Red Sox have signed a whopping two players to their major league roster accounting for $39,500,000 (per Spotrac). Those two players are… Lucas Giolito and Cooper Criswell. And the majority of that money has been spent on the reclamation project that is Giolito.

They have also invested $16,025,000 in four players to avoid arbitration (Nick Pivetta, Tyler O’Neill, John Schreiber, Reese McGuire) to bring their offseason spending spree total $55,525,000, which ranks 12th in the majors. 

Now, ranking 12th doesn’t sound so bad… until you look at the gap between the teams above them. The next highest-spending team, the Toronto Blue Jays, has invested nearly $10 million more this offseason at $64,637,500. To crack the top 10, the Red Sox would have needed to spend nearly $20 million more to match the San Francisco Giants and their $75,770,000 investment. 

Then we get to the big boys. The Atlanta Braves have invested $91 million. The New York Mets have invested $92 million. Each of the seven teams above that have made investments of over $100 million this winter, going all the way up to the Los Angeles Dodgers… who have spent nearly $1 billion.

So while $50-some million might not exactly be pocket change for you and I, it’s certainly no indication of a team and ownership group that is “supportive” of assembling a contender in the here and now.

Either Breslow was carrying his new bosses’ water with that assessment, or he’s been dramatically underperforming to the expectations of John Henry and Tom Werner who were chomping at the bit to spend in the nine figures this offseason. 

C’mon, which scenario do we think is more realistic? 

Next came the pivot. The dreaded “we’re open to contending now…. but.” 

As Breslow followed up to the Globe, “… But I think the reality is that it’s going to require a step forward from the young position players. It’s going to require the build out of a talent pipeline of arms that we can acquire, we draft and we can develop internally. And it’s going to require aggressive player development in the minor leagues and the major leagues so guys that we think are the next wave — Mayer and Anthony and Teel, that group — are not just big leaguers but impact big leaguers.”

Oh boy. We just went from “willing to assemble a World Series team” to “rebuild” in no time flat. At least we can agree on one thing: it certainly seems more the reality now that these Red Sox are going to keep with their slow cooker approach instead of turning up the heat to cook a five-star dinner. 

And as an aside, I think Breslow just gave everyone who’s wondered if he’s willing to trade any of the team’s top prospects this offseason their answer: probably not. I’d have a hard time believing he would name drop the likes of Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel as integral parts of the team’s future… and then turn around and trade them. 

The saving grace in Breslow’s comments thus far is that he’s talking about an “aggressive” rebuild. Unlike Bloom, who seemed more comfortable playing the wait and see game, Breslow is at least talking about the need for players at all levels to develop quickly. But talk is cheap (no wonder Henry and Werner love it…) and signing or trading for proven talent is always the fastest way to be “aggressive” and accelerate a rebuild. 

Breslow concluded his pontification saying, “… The convergence of all those pieces is the fastest path to a World Series team. … We want to build this thing in a way that there’s not just quality once in a while but there’s quality paired with consistency.”

Finally, we’ve reached our “aha!” moment. Not only do Breslow’s comments here completely contradict his opening statement on ownership’s willingness to build a winner today, but he also (perhaps unwittingly) provides a window into ownership’s philosophy. 

And shockingly, their philosophy hasn’t changed from Bloom to Breslow: they’re still focused on trying to build a longterm, cost effective team in favor of a high-priced, short term winner. 

“Full throttle” was, unsurprisingly, full of it.

Of course, there’s truth in what Breslow is saying. The best way to construct a perennial winner is by building up the farm while simultaneously investing in there here and now. It’s too soon to tell whether or not Breslow will be effective with the former, but we’re close to making a definitive statement on the latter.

In essence, spending less than half of what the top teams in the league — and literally almost $1 billion less than the very top one — is not going to cut it for accelerating a rebuild. Looks like you’re going to have to be in it for the long haul again, Red Sox fans.

So again, I’ll ask... why did ownership even bother replacing Bloom with Breslow?

I’ll answer my own question. It was all a bait and switch. “Look at this shiny new object while we shift things around to make it look like we’re doing something but don’t actually make any substantive change.” 

It’s simple: Henry, Werner and company are continuing to belittle your intelligence. The mouthpiece (and probably eventual scapegoat) just looks a little different. But don’t worry, Red Sox fans. They’re going to do this, and it’s going to be awesome…